


Behave

by Samunderthelights



Category: 13 Reasons Why (TV)
Genre: Don't copy to another site, Fluff, Fluff and Angst, Friendship, Hand Jobs, Kissing, Light Angst, M/M, Mentions of Suicide Attempt, Mild Sexual Content, My First Work in This Fandom, Zalex, this takes place after the locker room scene
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-06-09
Updated: 2020-06-09
Packaged: 2021-03-03 18:55:47
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,426
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24630424
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Samunderthelights/pseuds/Samunderthelights
Summary: After what happened in the pool locker room, Zach goes to Alex's house to see if he's okay.
Relationships: Zach Dempsey & Alex Standall, Zach Dempsey/Alex Standall
Comments: 11
Kudos: 139





	Behave

**Author's Note:**

> Hi!  
> I haven't written anything for this fandom before, but I was rewatching the show from the beginning, and this time I got a few ideas for short stories. So yeah, this is just a little something, and I really enjoyed writing different characters than I'm used to. It was fun to take a little trip to somewhere else!  
> Hopefully enjoy!  
> Xx

“Hello, Mrs. Standall,” Zach says, trying to flash his biggest, most charming smile.

  
“Zach! What a surprise. I didn’t know you were coming over.”

  
“I wasn’t planning to, but I just wanted to see how Alex was doing.”

  
“Oh… did something happen at school today? Is he okay?”

  
“No!” Zach quickly says, “well, yeah, he was a little upset about not being able to testify. So I just wanted to check in and see if he was okay.”

  
“Sure, of course. Come on in. We’ve already eaten, but I can make you something if you like. Would you like…”

  
“That’s fine, thank you, Mrs. Standall.” Zach smiles. “I think I’ll just go see Alex.”

  
Zach goes up the stairs, still feeling just a little nervous when he thinks about what Alex had done to himself just months ago. He had tried really hard not tot hink about it, just as he had tried not to think about what Hannah had looked like after it had happened, but when he had been alone, and he was struggling to fall asleep, sometimes his mind would drift off, and the images of Hannah in that bathtub, of Alex sprawled out on the bathroom floor, they would start flashing before his eyes. Whenever it happened, he knew that it meant that he wouldn’t be getting any sleep that night. And although it has gotten better as time has gone on, and since Alex has come back to school, every once in a while he still catches the image of him with a gun to his head, the image of him lying there in that bloody bathroom, coming back to him.

  
As he passes the bathroom door, he tries his best to blink away the image, but he had seen how upset Alex had been that afternoon, how he had tried to get him to fight him, out of pure anger and frustration. He is hoping to find Alex’s door open, to find him watching tv, or making homework, looking like he always does, like that afternoon hadn’t even happened. But the door is closed, and for a moment Zach feels a wave of nausea washing over him, scared of what he’ll find when he goes into his room.

  
He doesn’t want to wait too long though, so he pushes open the door, preparing himself for the worst, but when he finds Alex sitting at his desk, his pants pushed down to his knees, he simply bursts out laughing, a dozen worst-case scenarios having run through his mind in the last minute or so, but he had not once considered that this was why Alex had had his door closed.

  
“Fuck you!” Alex spits out, and he fumbles to pull his pants up, a hurt look on his face.

  
“I’m sorry, man, I’m not laughing because you’re…,” Zach tries, quickly closing the door behind him. “Look, it doesn’t matter, okay?”

  
“What are you doing here anyway?” Alex asks, still fumbling to pull up his zipper. “Shouldn’t you be hanging out with Bryce or something?”

  
“I just wanted to see if you were okay after what happened this afternoon.”

  
“What happened this afternoon? You seriously want to bring that up again?” Alex scoffs.

  
“It really works again then?” Zach tries, hoping that laughing it off will ease the tension in the room, but Alex just sighs, a frustrated look on his face. “What? When I just walked in, it sure looked like…”

  
“Well, it doesn’t, okay? It doesn’t fucking work. I told you, I am broken, Zach.”

  
“You’re not broken, you’re just…”

  
“Not getting better.”

  
“You will. Look, this afternoon it worked, right? You got hard, so…”

  
“Yeah, thanks for reminding me.” Alex rolls his eyes. “It doesn’t work now, okay? So whatever happened this afternoon… it doesn’t work anymore. Believe me, I’ve tried.”

  
“Do you think maybe like… it worked this afternoon because of the physical contact?”

  
“I don’t know, okay? Can we please stop talking about my dick?”

  
“I’m just trying to help,” Zach tries, but he can see how frustrated Alex is getting, how embarrassed.

  
“Why? Why do you fucking care if my dick works or not, huh? You want to know so you can laugh about me with your friends?” Alex spits out. “Not only is he a fucking cripple who couldn’t even kill himself, now he can’t even…”

  
“Fuck you, okay?” Zach asks, already reaching out for the door again. “You really think I would tell the others about this? I’m here because I was worried about you. I saw how upset you were, and I don’t want you to…”

  
“What?”

  
“I wasn’t there for Hannah, and I don’t want to make the same mistake again, okay?”

  
“You think I’ll try to kill myself again?” Alex asks, his frustration having been replaced by shame. “I won’t.”

  
“I’m here because I care, and because I want to help. But if you don’t want my help, and if you’re just going to…”

  
“I do,” Alex quickly says, and he flashes a small, embarrassed smile.

  
Zach sits down on the bed, and he nudges his head into the direction of the laptop.

  
“That didn’t work?”

  
“No, it didn’t. It’s just… dead,” Alex admits. “I’m sorry about this afternoon.”

  
“I’m not. It happens.” Zach shrugs, before looking around the room, taking his time to check out the posters. There is a tense silence, and Zach can sense how uncomfortable Alex is, but he needs to take a moment to wrap his head around this and to think this through.

  
“Do you want to see what happens if we… you know, hug or something?” he finally suggests, but Alex just scoffs, before raising an eyebrow. “I mean it, if it’s a physical thing, then…”

  
“I am not going to hug you just to try and get hard, Zach.”

  
“Why not?”

  
“Because… do you even need to ask me that?” Alex laughs. “That would be really fucked up.”

  
“Yeah, or it could work. It worked this afternoon, didn’t it?” Zach shrugs, wanting nothing more than to help Alex, who is staring at him like he is smelling something dirty. “I promise whatever happens, won’t leave this room, okay?”

  
“You know I like Jess, right?”

  
“Yes, you’ve only told me that a hundred times,” Zach laughs. “That’s not what this is about.”

  
“Fine… then just… let’s hug, I suppose,” Alex chuckles uncomfortably. He pushes himself up out of his chair, but when Zach steps up to him, he can sense his hesitation.

  
“We don’t have to do this. I’m only trying to help. If you want me to go…”

  
“No, it’s… it’s fine.” Alex nods, before nervously wrapping an arm around Zach’s neck. Zach slides his arms around Alex’s waist, and he pulls their bodies together. And although they have been physical with each other before, during training, there is something about this, about knowing why they are doing this, that makes them both tense, and they can almost hear each other’s heart beating.

  
“This is really fucking weird,” Alex whispers, but he doesn’t let go of Zach, who slides his hands down to Alex’s ass. He grinds their hips together, half-expecting Alex to freak out and to back off, but the move only seems to make Alex relax into his touch. Because when he does it again, he hears Alex’s sharp intake of breath, and he can feel a smile forming on his lips when Alex’s grip on his neck tightens.

  
“Is this okay?”

  
“Mhm,” Alex mumbles. “This is good.”

  
“Yeah?” Zach smiles, but when he feels Alex’s lips brushing past the skin of his neck, the smile quickly leaves his face.  
He leans back, an embarrassed look on Alex’s face. But before Alex can even apologize, Zach has already kissed him. It’s a hungry kiss, filled with all the anger and frustration from the last months, and it almost feels like a fight for control. And by the time they break their kiss, and Zach looks at the other young man, he can see the tears in his eyes.

  
“Do you want to stop?”

  
“No,” Alex admits, his voice barely a whisper.

  
Zach’s hands are still on Alex’s ass, but when he brings one round to Alex’s front, and he carefully and slowly slides it into his pants, he can feel his grip on his neck growing so tight that it is almost beginning to hurt.

  
“Alex…”

  
“Sorry,” Alex chuckles awkwardly, and he slides his hand down to the other man’s shoulder, before looking down, just seeing Zach’s hand sliding into his underwear. “Fuck!”

  
“It sure seems to work now,” Zach whispers, trying to ignore the fact that his heart seems to be about to beat out of his chest, as he slowly, and gently begins to stroke Alex’s dick.

  
Alex rests his head against Zach’s chest, his breathing becoming more choked up by the second, and it only takes a minute for him to come. When he does, he tries to hold back a sob, but it slips out of him, and he quickly steps away from Zach, too embarrassed to face him.

  
“Hey, man, are you okay?” Zach asks, trying to reach out, but Alex flinches, as he struggles to zip up his jeans. “Alex, please…”

  
Alex hands him a dirty rag, still ignoring him, before sitting down on the bed, his face flushed, more from the embarrassment than anything.

  
“It’s okay,” Zach tries. “I’m not judging you.”

  
“That I cry like a fucking baby, just because I…”

  
“I think you have every right to be emotional,” Zach says, before kneeling down by the bed, resting his hands on Alex’s knees. “These last months haven’t exactly been easy.”

  
“Why are you doing this? Being nice to me?”

  
“Because you’re my friend.” Zach smiles, “and I care about you, okay?”

  
“Is this what you do with your friends?” Alex asks, but when he looks up, he has a teasing smile on his face, his tears already drying up on his cheeks. “You jerk them off?”

  
“I can’t say it’s something I have done before, but… it was alright, wasn’t it?” Zach laughs, before getting up and sitting down next to Alex. “Are you okay?”

  
“About this? Sure. At least now I know that some part of me isn’t broken, I guess.” Alex shrugs, but when Zach grabs his hand, he flashes a small smile. “Thank you.”

  
“Are we good?”

  
“I guess…,” Alex says, but then he looks down at Zach’s hand, and he shakes his head.

  
“We’re not?”

  
“What if I want to do this again?”

  
“I thought you liked Jess,” Zach teases, but when Alex pulls away from him, looking more than just a little uncomfortable, he sighs. “Look, I like you, man, but not like that.”

  
“I don’t like you like that either. But I did like this, whatever just happened,” Alex admits. “and I like hanging out with you.”

  
“Even if it doesn’t mean anything?”

  
“It did mean something to me,” Alex admits. “I wouldn’t do that with just anyone.”

  
“No, me neither,” Zach says, before flashing a reassuring smile. “I meant what I said, you know? I care about you, and I’m worried about you.”

  
“I’m fine.”

  
“You’re not. None of us are. But talk to me, okay? Or talk to someone else, but just talk to someone. Please.”

  
“I will.”

  
“Look, I should go, but call me if…”

  
“If I’m thinking about killing myself?” Alex asks, not even noticing what these little comments do to the people around him. “I’m not, Zach.”

  
“Okay. But call me.”

  
“I will,” Alex says, as they get up.

  
He walks Zach over to the door, but when Zach is about to open the door, he stops him.

  
“Can I…”

  
“What?”

  
“I really want to kiss you,” Alex admits, and Zach tries his best to keep a straight face, but a big smile forms on his face. “Would that be okay?”

  
“Sure,” Zach laughs. “But that’s it, okay?”

  
Zach places his hand on the side of the other man’s face, and he gently brings their mouths together, their kiss worlds away from their kiss before. And when Alex steps away from him, he is blushing, the shyest smile on his face.

  
“I’ll see you tomorrow?” Zach laughs, trying his best to ignore Alex’s blushing, but Alex seems to notice it too, because he shakes his head, smiling to himself.

  
“This is really fucking weird, isn’t it?”

  
“A little. But it’s good weird, right?”

  
“I guess…”

  
“It is,” Zach laughs. “I’ll see you tomorrow.”

  
He goes down the stairs, only to find Alex’s mom standing there, and for a moment he wonders just how much she has heard. But when she flashes a grateful smile, he breathes a sigh of relief.

  
“Thank you, for everything you’re doing for him. I know he won’t say it, but it means a lot to him.”

  
“You don’t have to thank me, Alex is my friend, so…”

  
“I know, but thank you.”

  
Zach flashes a smile, before quickly saying a goodbye, and heading out the door. But before he gets into his car, he looks up, and he finds Alex standing in the window, looking down at him, a small smile on his face.

  
To others that smile wouldn’t mean much, but to Zach, knowing what Alex has been through, knowing how far he has come, that smile means the world. He smiles back, and he gives a little wave, before watching Alex close the curtains, only a shadowy figure remaining to be seen. And for a moment he sees the image of Alex in that bathroom flashing before his eyes again, but when his phone buzzes, he quickly takes it out of his pocket, and he finds a text from Alex.

_Don’t worry, I’m not going to do anything stupid._

Zach can’t help but smile, and he quickly texts back.

_Good. Don’t make me come back up there again._

It takes a moment, and Zach gets into his car, ready to go home, but when he sees Alex’s reply, he struggles to keep a straight face.

_Yeah, that’s really not helping. I might just do something stupid, just to make you come back.  
What do I get if I’m good?_

Zach looks back up at the window, hoping to find Alex there, but the curtains are still drawn. This time when he pictures Alex though, he doesn’t see him in the bathroom, instead he pictures him lying in bed, a mischievous grin on his face.

_Behave, and you’ll see. I promise it’ll be worth it._

**Author's Note:**

> Tumblr : https://samunderthelights.tumblr.com/


End file.
